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This is a great read. I'd love an anime or VN adaptation, though I'm not sure how well that would work out.

Spoiler for vol 4:

It looks like Kazuki's abnormality is that he seems to be the only person content with his own life. It makes sense why he's someone that can trample on someone's wishes, or grant them -- he has no wish for himself... or at least he didn't until after the game. With Daiya manipulating Kazuki's desire, Kazuki now has a concrete desire (to protect Maria). Having a concrete desire is why 0 was supposed to lose interest in Kazuki. It's a shame though, because I believe Kazuki was at his best when he had something he wanted in Volume 4 and proceeded to outsmart Yuuri and Iroha.

Aside from the romantic pairing, Maria also sounds like Kazuki's foil to me. Her personality, her motivations, and her "wish" all contrast with his. Her "Flawed Bliss" is a neverending wishbox. In order for her wish to be complete, she has to grant everyone else's wishes and make everyone happy. Of course, that is an impossibility. Thus, she will never be satisfied, and her box will never disappear. Because this desire is the polar opposite of Kazuki's, even 0 has a distaste for her.

Right now, hints of the Kazuki x Maria pairing are all over the place, but both of them are a bit misguided. Maria obviously needs to stop being Archer and become happy with her own life. Kazuki obviously wants Maria to be part of his life, but as he is right now he believes Maria opposes his everyday life. When Maria stops being atruistic and Kazuki sees her as part of his nromal life, not an anomaly, I'm sure there will be a happy ending.

Also, I'm a big fan of Otonashi's messy hair.

As for the artwork in general, the style looks appearing enough, but I can't help but think that it doesn't fit the characters in certain areas. For example, I'm pretty sure Kokone has an ample chest she brags about once, but the single illustration of her doesn't show that. In fact... everyone looks like they have the same physique.

yes,seem he can only draw small(or inexistant) chest,and yuri design is a big failure.
but i can't wait which new perso will be introduced in the next vol.,for they are one of the great asset of this novel-and maria rule them all!

Just finished reading all 4 volumes on baka tsuki in 4 days. Surprisingly a very good read. I really like the interactions between Kazuki and Maria. Hopefully Volume 5 will be coming soon as I can't seem to get more enough of this.

This is a great read. I'd love an anime or VN adaptation, though I'm not sure how well that would work out.

Read it a few times back, it's a pretty good read, definitely one of my favorite genres. And yeah, I think this can make a pretty good anime as well. One thing though, I really don't want KyoAni to do this...not to say anything bad about them, as I'm sure they can do a pretty good job regardless if they put their mind on it, but after Endless Eight it will simply be too traumatic to me, even without any gimmicks...

although I would really love to see HakoMari animated one day, I think it will be extremely difficult to make it work as an anime. The light novel relies heavily on dialogue and internal monologue to expose the characters and reveal the story---which doesn't always translate well to an animated medium. In addition, dealing with the non-linear aspect of the work is not going to be easy, especially during the first volume thanks to the multiple iterations of Rejected Classroom. But more importantly, how would you make the anime more interesting than the source material? This, I think, will be the most difficult part. Not to say that HakoMari is perfect as it is---there are some spots that can be improved---, but I can't quite imagine something that can translate the excitement I had while reading this. In my mind, any adaptation will fail if they can't recreate the confusion and awesomeness of this work.

However, I would love to see this in the hands of Yamakan, who will surely work himself to death in order to make HakoMari interesting at the very least, if not more enjoyable. Or, I will rather have Kyoani do it, even at the risk of having another Endless Eight scenario: high production values and good writing are better than a forgettable adaptation.

Regarding the release date of the next volume:
I'm pretty sure nothing will be released before March (based on the Dengeki thread on 2ch). Considering that Mikage himself said he would take a bit more time and that he's written another book in the meantime, my personal guess would be April or so.

But actually there is a short-story, or so I believe, that has been released in here. ...I wish I could get my hands on it. :O

Also, personally I would be interested in watching a Hakomari movie - because it's got a good ending and honestly, I couldn't imagine a decent weekly OP theme that would fit the mood of Hakomari.
Though, I don't think this sort of story is very suitable for that media. There are too many delicate details.

Spoiler for example scene:

e.g. the confession, which would seem *very* suspicious and unnatural because they would have to hide Kasumi's face.

Well, a lot of light novels that have been serialized in Dengeki Bunko received an anime adaptation, like Spice and Wolf, Durarara!!!, Ore no Imouto, Shakugan no Shana, Toradora!, and Baccano!.

This could get an anime, but I don't know how popular this series is, even though I think this is one of the better Dengeki series. The only problem is that the first arc will be the most difficult to adapt, so the anime will almost certainly have to put their own spin on it, though I have trouble placing my faith on the animation studio to write good, original material in an adaptation, especially after seeing the OreImo and Shana anime. There's also the possibility of a loss of important detail even in a faithful adaptation, like what happened in the Toradora anime.

though I have trouble placing my faith on the animation studio to write good, original material in an adaptation, especially after seeing the OreImo and Shana anime. There's also the possibility of a loss of important detail even in a faithful adaptation, like what happened in the Toradora anime.

It's the leads. OreImo and Shana basically killed what was good or interesting about their male leads, and Toradora toned down Ryuuji quite a lot. The thing is about Hakomari is that, well, Kazuki isn't exactly the most, ah, unique character. They'd have no problem in making him more generic because, well, he already is.

I agree with EusthEnoptEron. The biggest problem with an anime would be the literary tricks it pulls in Vol. 1, which is sort of why you'd need to do an 'artsy' film adaptation rather than a television series. Preferably made by ufotable.

It's the leads. OreImo and Shana basically killed what was good or interesting about their male leads, and Toradora toned down Ryuuji quite a lot. The thing is about Hakomari is that, well, Kazuki isn't exactly the most, ah, unique character. They'd have no problem in making him more generic because, well, he already is.

I agree with EusthEnoptEron. The biggest problem with an anime would be the literary tricks it pulls in Vol. 1, which is sort of why you'd need to do an 'artsy' film adaptation rather than a television series. Preferably made by ufotable.

Kazuki isn't the only lead character though. Maria is just as important as Kazuki, and she isn't exactly generic.

There are also huge differences between a deviation from the canon like what OreImo and Shana did and just a loss of detail like in Toradora. What worries me is the former, but the anime will almost have use its own tricks to keep vol. 1 interesting.
KyoAni's spin on Endless Eight was interesting. Every episode had new animation and changes in minute details like Yuki had mentioned. In fact, I would have recommended that they kept the Brigade's awareness of the time loop until the last two episodes and just kept Kyon vaguely feeling deja vu for 6/8 episodes. With the plot twist being revealed so soon, there was little reason to watch all eight episodes.

For this first arc, a lot of shorter Rejecting Classrooms could be used at the beginning of each episode as a lead-in to the opening theme, where the episode would really begin after the OP. The first arc is riddled with foreshadowing, so the animation studio could take their own artistic approach on when to present the smaller portions.

Again, however, changing the canon is always something I'm wary of. In my opinion, there's a difference between changing the canon to simplify the story and changing the canon for artistic purpose. The former happens much more often, and that's when the quality takes a downturn, like in OreImo, Shana, and even non Dengeki series adaptations like Zero no Tsukaima and Yosuga no Sora (Nao's route). Very few series get changes in the anime for artistic purpose. The only series I can think of that did was Haruhi, with the series broadcasting out of chronological order in the first season, and Endless Eight being more than two shown recursions of time in the second season.

Whether as a movie or anime, I have a hard time seeing Utsuro no Hako work as a show....except maybe vol 4 but even then, shows don't really have the ability to take the audience to the necessary depth required.

I have difficulty in understanding a major plot point in volume 1 (yes I finished it), can someone please explain it to me?

Spoiler for About the owner:

Mogi was the one who used the box to create the time loop and they mentioned killing the owner would destroy the box. I am a bit confused about the part as to why wasn't the box destroyed when Mogi died in the traffic accident during several of the loops.

I have difficulty in understanding a major plot point in volume 1 (yes I finished it), can someone please explain it to me?

Spoiler for About the owner:

Mogi was the one who used the box to create the time loop and they mentioned killing the owner would destroy the box. I am a bit confused about the part as to why wasn't the box destroyed when Mogi died in the traffic accident during several of the loops.

Thanks.

Spoiler for her wish:

Mogi's wish was to "live with regret." Because she doesn't accept her death, that time loop is void and the day repeats. Normally death would destroy the box, just Mogi's wish was a special case that could nullify death since the day repeated.

Kazuki was the only one to see through Mogi's facade, so she fell in love with him. She confessed, but Kazuki originally said to wait until tomorrow. "Tomorrow" never came, because Mogi got into an accident. She wanted to do the day over again, and that's what her wish granted. When Kazuki confronted her in the end, she finally accepted her fate, and that's when the wish ended.

Another interpretation would be what Kazuki mentioned in the epilogue:

Spoiler:

A thought suddenly struck me. Mogi-san couldn't escape from the fate of getting run over by a truck in that world. And the fact that she survived each time didn't change either. This might be the reason why the 'Rejecting Classroom' has stayed intact, regardless how often she met with the accident.

I just edited those lines a bit. I think he means that she actually never died because of the accident (she did survive the real accident after all!).
Could also be interpreted as "she was forced to survive by the box because her regrets weren't wiped away yet", though.

Another interpretation would be what Kazuki mentioned in the epilogue:

Spoiler:

A thought suddenly struck me. Mogi-san couldn't escape from the fate of getting run over by a truck in that world. And the fact that she survived each time didn't change either. This might be the reason why the 'Rejecting Classroom' has stayed intact, regardless how often she met with the accident.

I just edited those lines a bit. I think he means that she actually never died because of the accident (she did survive the real accident after all!).
Could also be interpreted as "she was forced to survive by the box because her regrets weren't wiped away yet", though.

Spoiler:

Either way, she wasnt too happy about being crippled and bedridden before she got a chance to be together with Kazuki. Whether she would survive or not, she wasn't happy with her fate. Because she wasn't happy with her fate, she decided to change it with the Rejecting Classroom. However, she couldn't change it, so that's when she went crazy until Kazuki convinced her to accept it.